"is our life? A game!"") a quote from Act 3 of the opera, became a proverb in Russian. ""What? Where? When?"", a trivia game and one of the most popular TV-shows in Russia and former Soviet countries, starts with a musical quotation from the opera, Herman singing the phrase ""Life is but a game."" The Queen of Spades (opera) The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 (, ""Pikovaya dama"", ) is an opera in 3 acts (7 scenes) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name"
"the Kirov Opera (today's Mariinsky Theater) and changed two years later to the leading opera house of the Soviet Union: the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Here he sang the great parts of Russian and Italian repertoire such as the title role in ""Eugene Onegin"", Lionel in ""The Maid of Orleans"" (with Makvala Kasrashvili in the title role), Yeletzki in ""The Queen of Spades"", Robert in ""Iolanta"" all by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov's Misghir in ""The Snow Maiden"" (also recorded as CD), Andrey Bolkonsky in Prokofiev's ""War and Peace"", Conte di Luna in ""Il trovatore"", Gérmont in ""La traviata"", Rodrigo in ""Don Carlo"""
"widely in tone and focus. ""Onegin"" is a work of such complexity that, while only about a hundred pages long, translator Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning in English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so, Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers like Henry James. Pushkin wrote The Queen of Spades, which is included in Black Water, a collection of short stories of a fantastic nature by major writers, compiled by Alberto Manguel. Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers. Glinka's ""Ruslan"
"and the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg remain famous throughout the world. The first known opera made in Russia was ""A Life for the Tsar"" by Mikhail Glinka in 1836. This was followed by several operas such as ""Ruslan and Lyudmila"" in 1842. Russian opera was originally a combination of Russian folk music and Italian opera. After the October revolution many opera composers left Russia. Russia's most popular operas include ""Boris Godunov"", ""Eugene Onegin"", ""The Golden Cockerel"", ""Prince Igor"", and ""The Queen of Spades"". Since the late Soviet times Russia has experienced another wave of Western cultural influence, which led to"
"Tchaikovsky's ""The Queen of Spades"", Manon in Puccini's ""Manon Lescaut"", Marie in Bedřich Smetana's ""The Bartered Bride"", Mlada in Smetana's ""Dalibor"", Pauline in Sergei Prokofiev's ""The Gambler"", Poppea in Claudio Monteverdi's ""L'incoronazione di Poppea"", Salome in Richard Strauss's ""Salome"", Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's ""Eugene Onegin"", and Violetta in Verdi's ""La traviata"". Radmila Bakočević Radmila Bakočević (, ; born January 5, 1933), is a Serbian operatic soprano who had a major international opera career that began in 1955 and ended upon her retirement from the stage in 2004. During her career, she sang at most of the world's important opera houses, including"
"of music he supplied for ""Onegin"". With ""The Queen of Spades"", Modest's transposition of the story's timeline in the libretto to the 18th century was a boon for Tchaikovsky, whose favorite composer (and the one he most liked to emulate) was Mozart. The change allowed him to compose, in addition to impassioned love music, a number of 18th century pastiches depicting various social milieus. Also, as the supernatural gradually takes possession of the characters, Tchaikovsky matches it with equally ghostly music. He had already experimented in this vein in the transformation scene of ""The Sleeping Beauty"" showing an adeptness for"
"as in his Piano Sonata No. 8. Additional reworkings of the score have been composed by Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Michael Berkeley. The typical performance duration is approximately 43 minutes. ""The Queen of Spades"" is scored for two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, piano, and strings. The Queen of Spades (Prokofiev) The Queen of Spades (, ""Pikovaya Dama""), Op. 70, is the score composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 for the planned but unrealized film by Mikhail Romm. The film was to"
"Artur Ruciński Artur Ruciński (born 1976 in Warsaw) is a Polish baritone opera singer. Ruciński studied at the Warsaw Academy of Music and made his debut as Papageno in ""The Magic Flute"" with in 2001. In 2002 he made his debut at Warsaw's National Theatre, taking the title role in ""Eugene Onegin"". He went on to sing Onegin with the Berlin State Opera, and Enrico in ""Lucia di Lammermoor"" for Hamburg State Opera. Other roles have included Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Prince Yeletsky in ""The Queen of Spades"", Marcello in ""La bohème"", Riccardo in ""I puritani"" and Valentin"
"Kazimierz Kord Kazimierz Kord (born 18 November 1930) is a Polish conductor. Between 1949 and 1955, he studied piano at the Leningrad Conservatory. He also studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków. He has held major conducting. positions with the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra. His operatic guest conducting engagements included the first performance in Russian of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in the 1972-1973 season, and both Aida at the Met and Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, London in 1976. His recordings include the first stereo version"
"The Queen of Spades (Prokofiev) The Queen of Spades (, ""Pikovaya Dama""), Op. 70, is the score composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 for the planned but unrealized film by Mikhail Romm. The film was to be based on the short story ""The Queen of Spades"" (1833) by Alexander Pushkin, and was intended for release in 1937, the centenary of Pushkin's death. It is one of Prokofiev's least known pieces. ""The Queen of Spades"" was originally intended to released the centenary of Pushkin's death. However, the film was never finished, due to the tightening censorship in the USSR. Having signed"
"Eugene Onegin, Liza in The Queen of Spades, and Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly. In 1965, the young singer was sent to the La Scala theatre in Milan, where the vocal teacher and conductor, and assistant to the great Toscanini - Enrico Piazza - became her tutor. During her two-year stay the parts of Cio-Cio-San, ""Tosca"", ""Aida"", and ""Leonora in Il Trovatore"" were prepared. Her stay in Milan coincided with her participation in major international competitions. In 1966 she became a prize-winner at the Third International Tchaikovsky Competition, and in 1967 in Tokyo she won first prize and honorary ‘Gold Cup’"
"Rubinstein's opera ""The Demon"" became a model for the final tableau of ""Eugene Onegin"". So did Léo Delibes' ballets ""Coppélia"" and ""Sylvia"" for ""The Sleeping Beauty"" and Georges Bizet's opera ""Carmen"" (a work Tchaikovsky admired tremendously) for ""The Queen of Spades"". Otherwise, it was to composers of the past that Tchaikovsky turned—Beethoven, whose music he respected; Mozart, whose music he loved; Glinka, whose opera ""A Life for the Tsar"" made an indelible impression on him as a child and whose scoring he studied assiduously; and Adolphe Adam, whose ballet ""Giselle"" was a favorite of his from his student days and"
"that composer's later operas, namely ""The Enchantress"" (1886), ""The Queen of Spades"" (1889 – with libretto after Pushkin by the composer's brother, Modeste Tchaikovsky), and ""Iolanta"" (1892 – also with libretto by Modeste Tchaikovsky). ""Iolanta"" (sometimes written as ""Iolanthe"") was commissioned expressly by Vsevolozhsky as the first part of a two-act gala evening which would conclude with a ballet called ""The Nutcracker"". This two-act ballet was intended to showcase the choreography of Imperial Ballet Master Marius Petipa but eventually was created by assistant balletmaster Lev Ivanov, due to Petipa's failing health. The premiere of ""Iolanta"" and ""The Nutcracker"" on December"
"Marina Domashenko Marina Domashenko () is a Russian operatic mezzo-soprano. Domashenko was born into a musical family in the Siberian town Kemerovo. She graduated with honours from the Kemerovo School of Music where she studied piano and conducting, and from the Yekaterinburg Conservatory where she studied opera singing. The role of Olga in Tchaikovsky's ""Eugene Onegin"" at the Prague State Opera in 1998 was Domashenko's European debut. She returned the next season to sing Polina in Tchaikovsky's ""The Queen of Spades"", the title role in Bizet's ""Carmen"", and Dorabella in Mozart's ""Così fan tutte"". In 1999 she toured Japan with"
"in the 19 century includes 320 books about him and his works. The most famous of them are ""Eugene Onegin"" (1837), ""The Queen of Spades"", ""Stories of Belkin"", “The biography of my Lermontov”, as well as very small book of poems of Pushkin dedicated to Moscow. The museum has several thousands of the fairy-sized books: macro-mini, miniature, micro-mini and ultra-mini micro. The world’s three smallest books with size of 2mm x 2mm each that can only be read with the use of a magnifying glass which were published by “Toppan Publishing House” are also exhibited in the Baku Museum of"
"Orchestra. It also appears in ""Suppé: Overtures and Marches"" with Neeme Järvi conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (released in 2013). One of the earliest recordings of the overture was in 1917 by the Victor Talking Machine Company. Pique Dame (Suppé) Pique Dame (""The Queen of Spades"") is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppé to a German-language libretto very loosely based on Alexander Pushkin's short story ""The Queen of Spades"". The author of the libretto is unknown. ""Pique Dame"" was a revised version of Suppé's 1862 operetta ""Die Kartenschlägerin"" (""The Fortune Teller"") and premiered in June 1864"
"this edition, with the occasion of the 100 years anniversary from the birth of George Enescu. Some of the international personalities present were: Annerose Schmidt, François Joël Thiollier, Vladimir Spivakov, Emil Ceakarov, Isaac Karabtchiewisky and Herbert Kegel. Three of the seven musical troupes present in the festival were choreographical ensembles: Eurythmeum Troupe from Stuttgart, Lar Lubovitch Company and Sopianae Ballet Company. The critics had very good reviews for the Great Academic Theatre Ensemble of URSS which performed ""The Queen of Spades"" and ""Iolanta"" by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and ""Mozart and Salieri"" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, along with other famous pieces of"
"Edgar Evans (tenor) Edgar Evans (9 June 191222 February 2007) was a Welsh opera singer. His most famous role was Hermann in Tchaikovsky's ""The Queen of Spades"" at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Evans was born in Cwrtnewydd, Cardiganshire, Wales. In all, he sang some 45 roles – most of them major ones – at Covent Garden from 1946 – when, as one of its three principal tenors, he became a founder member of the ""Covent Garden Opera Company"" – to his retirement in 1975. In that time, he sang more roles and more performances at the Opera House"
"he was commissioned to the Leningrad Conservatory. He started his vocal career in the Maly Leningrad State Opera Theatre and then in the Yerevan Opera House, where he performed the leads for three years. From 1940 to 1966, Pavel Lisitsian was the soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre and performed parts of Yeletsky, Onegin, Mazepa, and Robert (in Tchaikovsky’s ""The Queen of Spades"", ""Evgenie Onegin"", ""Mazepa"", and ""Iolanta"" respectively), Germont and Amonasro (in Verdi's ""Traviata"" and ""Aida""), Escamilo (in Bizet’s ""Carmen""), Tatul (Spendiarov’s ""Almast""), Arsaces II (Arshak II) (Chuhadzhyan’s ""Arshak II""), Napoleon (in Prokofiev's ""War and Peace""), and others. During a"
"Enchantress"" (1886) and ""The Queen of Spades"" (1890). In 1887 Vsevolozhsky commissioned Tchaikovsky to score music for Marius Petipa's ""The Sleeping Beauty"", a ballet which would prove to be one of both Tchaikovsky and Petipa's greatest masterworks. The first performance on 15 January 1890 by the Imperial Ballet was a great success and soon Vsevolozhsky commissioned a second score for a ballet and an opera from the composer, ""The Nutcracker"" and ""Iolanthe"", which premiered together on a double bill on 6 December 1892. Prior to commissioning ""The Sleeping Beauty"", Vsevolozhsky had considered reviving one act of ""Swan Lake"" for the"
"was the first interpreter of more than dozen roles in Russian opera. Melnikov sang in every opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky except for ""Iolanta"", creating roles in four of Tchaikovsky's operas: Prince Vyazminsky in ""The Oprichnik"" (1874), Devil in ""Cherevichki"" (1886), Prince Kurlyatev in ""The Enchantress"" (1887), and Tomsky in ""The Queen of Spades"" (1890). Ivan Melnikov (baritone) Ivan Aleksandrovich Melnikov () (March 4, 1832 – July 8, 1906) was a Russian baritone opera singer. Melnikov was trained as a choirboy in his youth. In 1861, he began studying with Gavriil Lomakin, and participated from 1862 until 1866 in the"
"Aires (at Teatro Colón). She has toured with the Mariinsky Opera Company in Finland, China, the UK (at Royal Opera House), Germany, Italy (at La Scala), and the USA (at Metropolitan Opera). Irina Mataeva Irina Mataeva () is a classical Soprano soloist. Mataeva was born in Tyumen and graduated from Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1999. Her previous theatre roles include: She has also performed as ""Prilepa"" (The Queen of Spades) in Los Angeles and as ""Micaëla"" (Carmen) with the Washington Opera under conductor Plácido Domingo. Mataeva made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as ""Tatiana"" in Eugene Onegin. In 2005"
"he was also director of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. Viktor Selyavin Viktor Alekseyevich Selyavin (1875–1945) was a leading tenor of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. He is often referred to as Odessa's Sobinov, a reference to Leonid Sobinov, one of the best known Russian tenors of the first half of the twentieth century. His repertoire included the tenor roles of most major operas, but he is best known for his interpretation of Lensky in ""Eugene Onegin"". He also performed in chamber music, being especially fond of Mikhail Glinka's and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's romances. In 1920, Viktor Selyavin"
"focussed mainly on ballet, and worked principally with John Cranko. Kurt-Heinz Stolze composed or arranged the music for Cranko’s ballets ""Wir reisen nach Jerusalem"" (1963), ""L’Estro Armonico"" (1963, after Antonio Vivaldi), ""The Taming of the Shrew"" (""Der widerspenstigen Zähmung"") (1969; to the Shakespeare story; music based on sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti), and ""Kyrie eleison"" (1968; based on music by Bach). However, he is perhaps best known for the ballet ""Onegin"" (1965), based on Alexander Pushkin's verse play"" Eugene Onegin"", for which Stolze used the music of Tchaikovsky, but not a note from Tchaikovsky’s opera of the same name. Instead, he"
"for ""Edip in Afinakh"" (""Oedipus in Athens"", 1804), ""Fingal"" (tragedy by V. Ozerov, 1805), ""Tsar Edip"" (""Oedipus Rex"") (1816), ""Esphir"" (by Racine 1816), liturgical music including the ""Te Deum"", cantatas, choruses, songs (including 28 Russian songs), about 70 polonaises and other dance music for the court balls, etc. Tchaikovsky quotes a polonaise by Kozlovsky in the ballroom scene of ""The Queen of Spades"". The tracks include the following works by Osip Kozlovsky: Osip Kozlovsky Osip Antonovich Kozlovsky (also Joseph, Iosif Kozlowsky , also Иосиф or Юзеф Polish: Józef Kozłowski; (1757 in Propoysk – ) in St Petersburg) was a Russian-Polish"
"Frédérique Vézina Frédérique Vézina (born ) is a Canadian operatic soprano. Vézina gained recognition when she made her Canadian Opera Company debut in 2002–2003 as Lisa and Mascha in Tchaikovsky's ""The Queen of Spades"". Critics hailed the arrival of a major presence on the operatic stage. Critic Robert Everett-Green of ""The Globe and Mail"" praised her ""big Act III aria"" as ""eloquent testimony to the character's own addiction to emotional gambling."" She was cast in the Canadian debut of ""The Handmaid's Tale"" in 2004. She was featured as Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's ""Peter Grimes"" and Belinda in ""Dido and"
"Christopher Magiera Christopher Magiera (born 30 May 1983) is an American operatic baritone. Born in Evanston, Illinois, Magiera was an undergraduate student at Wake Forest University and a graduate student at the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. He attended the Bavarian State Opera Opernstudio and was employed by Eytan Pessen as a fest member at the Semperoper in Dresden from 2010-2012. Christopher Magiera made his American operatic debut at the age of 26 in the title role of Eugene Onegin with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Since then, Magiera has performed worldwide as a leading baritone,"
"Queen of Spades""). The opera was completed in 1894 and successfully staged on January 15 (OS January 3) 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, conducted by the composer. A year later (December 26, 1895) it was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Around this time, opera became a large part of the repertoire of the Russian theatrical scene. Only in 1897 there were seven premieres of ""Dubrovsky"" in different Russian towns: in Yekaterinoslavl, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Odessa, Poltava, Saratov and Yalta. It was also performed abroad: in Prague in (1896), Leipzig in (1897), and Plzeň and Brno in"
"and gramophone recordings of seven major Russian operas for Decca. The Decca series was supported by Gerald Severn, an émigré White Russian. The venue found in the then Yugoslav capital for the first batch of recordings was the cinema in the ""Dom Kulture"" (""House of culture"") complex, but which could only be used after the last film of the day (around 11 p.m.) so sessions took place at night. ""Prince Igor"" and ""Khovanschina"" were recorded in February 1955, with ""Eugene Onegin"", ""Life for the Tsar"", ""Snow Maiden"" and ""Queen of Spades"" in September and October that year, all among the"
"Tisbe in ""La Cenerentola"", Zita in ""Gianni Schicchi"", and the title roles in ""Carmen"" and ""Regina"". Her final appearance at the SFO was as Mrs. Peachum in John Gay's ""The Beggar's Opera"" in 1992. In 1960 Bonazzi made her debut with the Washington National Opera as the Countess in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ""The Queen of Spades"". She returned to Washington D.C. later that year to perform the role of Death in Igor Stravinsky's ""The Nightingale"" under the baton of the composer. Other roles she performed with the WNO during her career included Agata in ""Maria Golovin"", The Old Baroness in"
"Premiere, ""The Queen of Spades"" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Janko Kastelic Janko Kastelic (born 10 January 1969) is a Canadian–Slovene conductor who was from September 2008 until June 2011 the music director for the Opera House of Maribor, Slovenia. Born in Ljubljana, capital of the Slovene Republic within the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, and educated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he began his musical career at St. Michael's Choir School as a boy soprano and accompanist. He travelled the globe and acquired a vast musical repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to 20th-century music. At a very young age, he acquired"
"operations. One of his first tasks was to assist Zhdanov in disciplining the Soviet Union two greatest living composers, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. He selected Shostakovich's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies and Prokofiev's opera ""War and Peace"" as the worst examples of what was wrong with Soviet music. While in Moscow, Shepilov – famous for his near-eidetic memory, erudition and polished manners (reputedly, he could sing the whole of Tchaikovsky's opera, ""The Queen of Spades""from memory – became an expert on Communist ideology and a protégé of Joseph Stalin's chief of Communist ideology Andrei Zhdanov. The appointment of Yuri Zhdanov,"
"faculty she joined in 1960. She retired from full-time teaching in 1983, but continued teaching part-time until her death. Lipton died in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 28, 2006. She was 93. Martha Lipton Martha Lipton (April 6, 1913 – November 28, 2006) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. Lipton was born in New York City. She won a scholarship to the Juilliard School and made her debut as Pauline in Tchaikovsky's opera ""The Queen of Spades"" for the New Opera Company in Manhattan in 1941. After making her first appearance with the New York City Opera in 1944 (their first season,"